Utility computing techniques and services have come about, whereby computing resources are abstracted and made available for lease. By providing real or virtual servers for computational tasks over a communications network, utility computing models may provide users with access to significantly greater computing power than they may otherwise be willing to acquire or be able to afford.
Various utility computing models have been developed, such as grid computing and cloud computing. Grid computing systems comprise networks of loosely coupled computers configured to concertedly perform large and/or computationally intensive tasks. Grid computing techniques have, for example, been applied to problems ranging from seismic analysis to DNA sequencing to economic forecasting. In a cloud computing model, computing resources may be provided within a subscription-based, and/or pay-per-use framework. Often the computing resources in a cloud computing system are provided via simple service-oriented interfaces.
The leading number of each reference number within the drawings indicates the figure in which that reference number is introduced and/or detailed. As such, a detailed discussion of reference number 101 would be found and/or introduced in FIG. 1. Reference number 201 is introduced in FIG. 2, etc.